Towards Point Zero
by the 85th writer
Summary: On Hold; as I'm in the process of sorting my life out.
1. From The Depths Of The Id

**Chapter 01: From The Depths Of The Id**

_His eyes snap open involuntarily. His tries to see where he is but his vision is.. blurred at best.  
The color blue appears to dominate his surroundings. Cold, clinical blue._.

_Where am I?  
_  
_His mind is sluggish. Slow. He can only make out a steady stream of bubbles that enter into his line of sight.  
Coherence is a fickle mistress, dancing just out of his reach as he lunges forward to reach her.  
He tries again to grasp at the thin trails of information she leaves in her wake. Must keep trying... Have to know more...  
And then pain blooms across the surface of his body. White, shimmering tendrils that snake across the liquid that envelopes him._

_He screams silently, no sound escapes him. His mouth.. Something in his mouth...  
Liquid.. Keeping him.. alive? killing him?  
And then the white tendrils give way to black snakes that coil around him. Encircle him. Tubes.  
His mind registers after a fraction of a second what his eyes have.  
Not.. keeping.. alive.. Keeping.. imprisoned.. But who?_

_The throb at the back of his head is building. The questions form jumbled thoughts in his head.  
Then the questions give rise to voices. Voices he recognises. Voices he knows.  
He wills his aching muscles. Wills them so that he can turn his head ever so slightly.  
And then he sees someone standing with their hands against the glass. Glass... In a glass tank...  
His vision is growing cloudier, and his mind is on the brink of oblivion._

_He can see the figure getting closer. He fights to keep the blackness at bay.  
Must see.. Who are you.. Who are you?  
And then as he hears the man speak, his eyes widen and his body fills with ice.  
"Make sure he stays alive in there. We can't have him dying on us now, can we?"_

_As the ensuing laughter pounds in his ears, he thinks this isn't possible.  
This isn't possible because it can't be possible. Shouldn't be possible.  
Because Obadiah Stane was supposed to be dead._  
_The revelation snaps whatever consciousness he has been clawing at and he is claimed by blackness._

Tony Stark sat up ramrod straight in his bed. He was bathed in sweat and his hands instinctively flew to his mouth. There had been something in his mouth. They'd put something in his _mouth._  
But his hands touched his lips and found nothing, and he leaned back against the headboard. He closed his eyes and tried to process what he had just seen. Dreamt, not saw; he corrected himself. But it had been so vivid... So _real_...

He shook his head, that path had already been walked upon. Dreams meant nothing. Period. They were figments of his imagination, that was all. Post the captivity / Iron Man fiasco, Pepper had all but forced a psychiatrist down his throat. There had been the requisite shadow boxing but the shrink's persistence had won out in the end. And after a series of annoying though admittedly enlightening sessions, Tony had come to make a peace (or truce) of sorts with that period in his life. Which had meant no more odd dreams. Until now. Not that this meant anything. This dream could simply mean that he'd have to stop watching the Matrix a million times. Either that or avoid eating spicy food for dinner. He was tired, and his mind wasn't awake yet, not by a long shot. That was it, and that was all.

He felt movement at his right side and saw that Pepper was awake. "What happened?" she asked, sitting up immediately. "I don't know." he replied, scratching his beard thoughtfully. He tried snatching at the wispy cobwebs that the dream had become, but as is the nature with most dreams he came back empty handed.

"I honestly don't know." he repeated. Pepper pulled him down and drew him into her. "If you can't remember it, it couldn't have been very important." she murmured soothingly as she rubbed small circles on the shell of his ear. He only murmured half heartedly in reply, choosing the warm smell of Pepper over very odd, and decidedly random figments of his imagination. But as he drifted off toward sleep, he couldn't help feeling that it _had _been important.

**A/N:** TBC. Next chapter: What do these dreams mean? How does Stane fit into all of this? And what is Ikelos?


	2. The Legacy Of Stane

**Chapter 02: The Legacy Of Stane**

Two days later it was exactly the same. He'd go to sleep and have the same weird dreams. He couldn't remember them clearly, however much he'd try. He'd wake up every morning with hazy recollections of blue. And bubbles. And someone talking. Someone talking... Talking about...

And then nothing.

He shook his head in frustation and stared at the screen in front of him. _Concentrate_. _Now is not the time to go completely insane. You've got a goddamned company to run. _He'd also been spending more time immersing himself in his work. He figured the solution to the problem was simple. Work your ass off. And then sleep like the dead. He hadn't told Pepper that the dreams were a recurring feature. Knowing her, she'd probably schedule another round with that _shrink_ again. The earlier sessions had helped, to be sure. They'd felt more like fireside chats than sessions. But this time it wouldn't really work out. The problem being that the only guy he'd even _consider_ letting into his head had passed away. And the new guy that Pepper had tried to get him to see later had just been, well, a _dick_.

So no shrinks. Which meant no telling Pepper. Which meant willing himself _not_ to wake up shaking uncontrollably from the after effects of whatever had been lurking in his Id. My_ Id,_ he thought wryly. Who'd have thought he was multi-dimensional enough to have a fucking out of control _Id_?

"What's an Id?" said a voice, interrupting his thoughts. Tony jerked involuntarily, dropping a sheaf of papers onto the floor. He turned around to see Pepper. "Hm?" he asked, feigning ignorance. "You said something. What's an Id?" she asked, looking at him curiously. Cursing himself mentally for talking aloud, he began picking up the papers as Pepper came forward to help him. "It's nothing, just some freudian bullshit." He looked at her, hoping against hope that the explanation would suffice. As Pepper kept picking up the papers, obviously waiting for him to continue, he smiled a little. It _would_ have been a long shot to get away with _that_. "It's a classification of the functions of the mind. The Id, ego, and super-ego are the its three theoretical constructs. The Id is the unorganized part. The unconscious, if you will." he finished off, stacking the papers neatly onto his desk.

She looked at him quizzically. "_Super_ ego? There's a _super_ ego? How come you're more interested in your Id than your ego? Between your ego and super ego, I'd have thought your Id would've rolled over and _died." _She looked at him and laughed. He crossed his arms and looked at her, a smile tugging at his own lips. "Are you making fun of me, Pepper?" He closed the distance between them and hoisted her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "Because I dole out very strict punishment for people who do that." "I - wouldn't - call - it - punishment.." said Pepper wryly, jerking at each word as he carried her up the steps. "We''ll see, Potts. We'll see. I have many ways in whi-"

What could have been a very amusing monologue was cut off by Pepper's blackberry ringing. He stopped on the stairs, feeling her hair swish about his legs. "Your call, Potts." he said, mentally cursing to oblivion whoever it was that had called. "Um..." came the sound of Pepper's voice from the near his lower back. He sighed and set her down. "Just take the damned call..." he said and sat down on the steps, scowling at the offending device. Pepper looked at her phone and then at Tony. "It's Rhodey." "God I swear he has _no_ sense of timing. Remind me why we're friends again?" Pepper only rolled her eyes as Tony huffed. The conversation lasted all of five minutes at the end of which he looked at her. "Can we _go_ upstairs already?" She looked at him and shook her head. "No. Rhodes needs to meet with you. There's something you really need to know."

* * *

Tony wouldn't believe it. he simply refused to believe it. "It's not fucking _possible_, Rhodes. It's just _not._" James Rhodes looked at him and repeated what he'd already said five times, in the same calm tone. "It is. Atleast part of it is. I looked into it myself." Tony stood up and nervously ran a hand through his hair. "You're sure?" he asked. Rhodes said nothing, only nodded. Tony's self control, never known for its solidity, snapped. He crashed his hands down on the table. "_How_ goddamnit? How the _fuck_ do these things get _past_ me?" Pepper tried to step forward. "In all fairness Tony, it's still in the initial stages, and..." Tony turned to glare at her. "And what? How much tech will I have to _destroy_ before I can wipe Ob.. _Stane_ from the bloody mess that is my fucking _legacy_?"

Before Pepper or Rhodes could say anything, he raised his hands to stop whatever they may have been about to say. "I do the talking right now." He sat down heavily next to Rhodes. "And don't bullshit me Rhodey. I can tell when you bullshit me." he said, speaking through clenched teeth and barely suppressed anger. He looked Rhodes square in the eye before asking his next question. "Now tell me. _What_ is Project Ikelos?"

Rhodes took a deep breath. "I'm not exactly sure. It's part of a scrapped program. Something that had begun during the Cold War. The military deemed it useless because there just wasn't enough tech support at the time. Project was General Meccham's baby if I remember." "Wait, wait, wait... Meccham.. I know that name... How do I..." began Tony when comprehension dawned. "Wait, is this the super soldier program?"  
Rhodes looked at him and nodded. "Yeah. Meccham wasn't too happy when the project sank. He was dishonorably discharged a few years later when it was established beyond a doubt that he was uh, _seriously _fucked up in the head." Pepper looked at Rhodes quizzically. Rhodes looked at her and smiled grimly. "Let's just say that he tried to blow up a military installation that I will _not_ name, and tried to inject a young marine with the super soldier serum in question."

Pepper almost dropped the mug of coffee she was holding. "_What?"_ Her eyes were wide. "How could he... How could _anyone_..." she trailed off, her body trembling in anger. Tony slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her to sit beside him. "He got what was coming to him though. The pentagon scrapped the project, and few weeks later Mechham was found dead in his own home. He'd shot himself." said Rhodes quietly. Tony pulled Pepper closer still as he felt her shiver. "Why 'Ikelos' though? And how does -" Tony clenched his teeth - "_Stane_ tie in with this?" Rhodes finished off the last of his coffee before answering. "Ikelos. Semblance. They were trying to _build_ something more than human. Something _not_ human. Only with the semblance of one." He shook his head and sighed. "As for Stane... We just found out that there had been a brief revival in the project during the late '90s. Stark Industries had shown interest - " Tony gritted his teeth - "in Ikelos. Patinson had been at the helm at the time. He scrapped it. Thought it was outmoded and unfeasible. Didn't want any part of it. But-" Tony cut in. "-But Stane managed to get his hands on it anyway. How did you find out about this?"

Rhodes looked at him. "I was part of a sort of.. stock taking. Higher ups were grumbling about funding again, and the new guy is pretty adamant on cutting away the dead wood. I found out that they'd sold the tech to Stark Industries for Ikelos. As far as I know, our guys haven't looked at it in years. But Stane..." Rhodes let the sentence hang in the air. Tony laughed bitterly. "This explains everything. In part anyway. How that sonofabitch was able to fucking _support_ the weight of his own suit. When he was _flying_ in that bloody thing. It weighed a _ton_. I should've seen it sooner!" Tony crashed his fist on the table, startling Rhodes and Pepper. Rhodes sighed. "It doesn't matter anymore Tony. Stane is gone. Finished. And all of the data with him."

Pepper and Tony looked at each other at the same time. Pepper was the first to speak. "That doesn't make sense. He would've kept the data on his own private server. You don't throw away stuff like that." "Yeah, but we _checked_ his drives remember? Ran through them with a fine tooth comb. Decrypted everything, and nothing came back garbage. _Nothing._ We have everything he ever touched, and none of it mentioned anything close to Ikelos." Tony rubbed the back of his neck. "What'd you do with it Obi? Where would you hide something if not on your own server?" he said softly.

"I think I know." Rhodes and Tony both turned to stare at her. Pepper swallowed. "I.. when you gave me the lock chip for all the.. the data..ghost drive.." she faltered as she remembered what it was she had _seen_ on the ghost drive. She shook herself and continued. "Anyway, I.. I stored all that data remember? On - " "..my _private_ server." finished off Tony. Rhodes whistled softly. "So it's been with you the whole time?" he said. Tony looked at him, puzzled. "What, you have _nothing?" _Rhodes shook his head. "We have all the junk from back in the'80s. Nothing worthwhile."

Tony stood up and looked at Pepper and Rhodes. "What are you waiting for? An invitation? Let's go see what this Ikelos thing _is_."

**A/N: **TBC. Oh and the shrink is my nod to La Flamingo's excellent fic _Sessions_. Hope you don't mind. :) I also apologise for it being a little slow, but like I said, this is my first oficial non one-shot :P.


	3. Down The Rabbit Hole

**Chapter 03: Down The Rabbit Hole  
**  
The blonde man sat hunched over the laptop and entered the required text. The he hit the return key that began running a script. "And _now_ we are going to be richer by a fuckingly _huge_ amount of money." He grinned smugly and looked at the wire transfer taking place from the bank's accounts. "And that's how ya make money." He said again.

"Why do you bother with this kid's stuff? came a voice from the corner of the house.  
The blonde man sneered. "_Kid's_ stuff?"

He watched as an older, toad like man entered the room and stared at him balefully. "This kid's stuff is what's keeping us alive, old man. Nothing you ever did _ever _got us anything worthw- " he stopped speaking as he looked at the older man's face. "What? What is it?" he followed the old geezer's gaze towards his laptop. There was a popup on the screen that wasn't there before. The blonde man's eyes widened. "What.. What does this mean? How is this even _poss_i-" The old man looked at him and smiled slowly. It was not a nice smile.

"It means, that I may have done something right after all."

* * *

Tony was the first to enter the workshop. "Jarvis, I want you to pull up anything that was copied on here from the ghost drive that Pepper had brought in. User ID - tStark28." The screen turned blue and a password prompt appeared. Tony was typing in the password when Pepper and Rhodes came in. "Same password?" asked Rhodes, grinning. "Always, my friend." said Tony grinning back. Pepper looked at the two of them quizzically. "What are you not telling me?"  
Rhodes looked at Tony before smiling at her. "Let's just say he's had this _particular _password since he was 28." Tony only rolled his eyes and kept scrolling through the data on the screen. Pepper looked even more confused. "So, what? What's the password?" Before Rhodes could respond Tony looked at Pepper with a slightly abashed face. "It's uh.. PottsIsHot26." Pepper blushed. "Oh.."

Tony looked away in embarassment before adding, "Well it's a _good,_ secure password. And it's not forgettable... Aw screw you guys. Jarvis! What happened to the data?"  
"I am organizing it by date sir. Here it is."  
The screen began filling up with icons. Rhodes came up behind Tony and peered at the screen.  
"_Whoa_, that's a lot of data."  
"Yeah, and a lot of old stuff. I mean, some of these are actually batch files. Nobody's even used these things since '95. Practically speaking I mean."  
"Yeah, so skip it. Run a search already. Quit looking at this junk."  
"Mmm. Yeah. Jarvis, run a search for keyword 'Ikelos'. I-k-e-l-o-s. Pull up anything, documentation, executables; all of it."

* * *

The two men stared at the screen in silence. Finally the older man smiled grimly. "Told you working for that sonofabitch Stane would come in handy. Ikelos is back on the grid. It's taken a few years, but it's back. And all of Stane's add-ons with it." The blonde man looked at him with wide eyes. "But Stane's _dead_. This is Tony Stark we're dealing with. _Iron Man_ remember? Plus we can't _lift_ the stuff from here, we can only see it. You're just lucky he doesn't know we have remote access to his machine."  
The older man barked out a laugh. "_Lucky?_ You think this came from _luck_? This is an undetectable trojan, boy. One of it's kind. It hasn't been caught because nobody knows its signature. Not even _Stark_'s antivirus can catch it. Because it's never been _seen." _He paused. "But you're right about the access... I _need_ it. Mechham was a stupid bastard. But not Stane. Stane had seen beyond that stupid Super soldier program. Into the very _core _of its possibilities. Ikelos was just a blind. Ikelos doesn't even _exist_."

The blonde man looked at the other quizzically. He wanted to ask a lot of questions, most of which probably wouldn't be answered. He decided to go with the simplest one.

"So what do you want to do about it? Just walk over to Stark's place to get it?"  
The older man stared at a spot on the wall for a long time before he answered.

"Actually, yes."

* * *

"There it is."

Tony pointed to the screen. Towards a folder marked Ikelos. "You think we'll just be able to open it?" aske Rhodes doubtfully. Tony looked at Rhodes. "We can try."  
Tony clicked on the folder, and sure enough; a password prompt appeared. Rhodes cursed. "_Damn_ it. What the _hell_ could the password be?"  
Tony smiled grimly. "We can try one. If that doesn't work, it'll take us a while." Rhodes and Pepper watched Tony enter text into the prompt and hit return. The folder clicked open.  
"What'd you type in?" asked Pepper, puzzled. Tony turned to look at her with an unsmiling face.  
"IronMonger."

Nobody said anything as a video began playing on the screen. "Shit, this stuff is really _out_ of it." breathed Rhodes. The images showed the various stages of the serum's effect. And all of it seemed to end _very _badly after a dosage of more than 2 milligrams. Apparently Ikelos had been an abject failure. Because nobody could _survive_ a dose that gave you power beyond an hour.  
"_Fuck._" breathed Tony. "So this means that Ikelos was.. what? Abandoned?" asked Rhodes. "I guess so..." said Tony, looking unconvinced. A few minutes silence followed this statement. Suddenly Pepper spoke. "What's that? What's Hypnos?" Tony turned to look at her. "What? Hypnos? Where?" "Right there." she said, jabbing her finger at the screen. The three of them turned to look at the video, which had still been playing. Tony looked at it and comprehension dawned.  
"We're such _idiots!_ They branched _off_ Ikelos_! _I knew they couldn't have abandoned it, it didn't make _sense!_"  
Rhodes looked at him. "What? You're saying Ikelos _became_ Hypnos?" "Yes!" said Tony, pulling up graphs onto the screen. "Look at these. These are EEG graphs, monitoring brain signals. See the spikes in the graph? They show abnormal activity. And it looks really similar to REM activity." he said. Rhodes wasn't convinced. "_Why_ would these guys be monitoring dreams? REM means dream-sleep right?" "Right..." said Tony quietly, not voicing his inner fears.  
Namely, what the _fuck_ did his dreams mean? And how were they related to this Hypnos/Ikelos horror?

He didn't have time to follow those thoughts further because the room was suddenly plunged in darkness. "Jarvis? What the hell just happened?" said Tony.  
"We are experiencing an electrical storm, sir. The power phase of the workshop has been affected." replied Jarvis.  
"Well, then fix it. That's the _point_ of generator backup." snapped Tony. They had too much information to go through without the power outage slowing them down further.  
"I have already tried, sir. But there seems to be a mechanical problem. You'll have to enter the codes manually."  
"Fine. I'll go." said Tony angrily. He looke at Rhodes. "You stay here with Pepper. Save and power off if the generator doesn't come up soon." Rhodes nodded, and then both of them watched Tony go outside.

The rain was pouring thick and fast. It lashed against Tony's back as he made his slow way towards the backup generator. The generator was housed just outside the Stark Mansion. It had a waterproof fiberglass covering and was connected to the house via power cables. This normally enabled an automatic switch to backup power in case of outage. Normally.

Tony followed the line of cables towards the generator. And found that one of the cables had been... gnawed. Tony rolled his eyes in frustration. _Fucking rats. I have to do a manual override because of _rodents?  
Resisting the urge to scream, he opened the panel that allowed him to enter the codes.

As he entered the passcode, he looked up. The rain was falling in torrents, and lightning flashed. _Welcome to electrical overload_, he thought absently. He watched the bluish white streaks of electricity dance upon the waves. _Just like the arc reactor,_ he thought, looking down at the glow in his shirt.

And that was when Tony realised that he was out in the middle of an electrical storm with a miniature electromagnet embedded in his chest.  
_  
Shit! Shit shit shit!_ _Enter the passcode and get out Stark!_  
Tony hit the return button and began sprinting towards the mansion.  
He had almost crossed halfway when lightning struck.  
The shock of the discharge threw him back a good ten feet.  
And then everything dissolved to blackness.

**A/N:** What happens when Tony wakes up? Who are older man and blonde man? And what the HELL is Hypnos?  
Oh and rats do chew out cables. Review please!


	4. Where Is My Mind?

**_Chapter 04: Where Is My Mind?_**

It was cold.  
So very cold.  
His body was wet. And there was so much water. And there was so much glass.  
Shards of glass on the floor. Particles in his arms. In his skin. Glass grinding into his skin.

_Get up.  
_  
His muscles simultaneously felt like they were on fire and like he hadn't used them in days.  
Everything was wet. Slippery. Slick with water.  
And blood.

_Get up.  
_  
He opened his eyes, feeling the dried blood crack against his skin. Using every ounce of willpower he pushed himself up painfully to a standing position. His eyes were bloodshot and there was a steady, dull throb of pain in the back of his head. He looked down at his left forearm and saw that it had sustained mild burns. That the edges of his shirt were singed; charred. He gingerly brought his fingers into his mouth and tasted blood. That and the vague aftertaste of battery acid. But there should be more, he thought. By rights he should be dead.

_How am I _not _dead?_

The cable, he realized dully. The cable had been exposed, and it had diverted the charge. The aftershock had thrown him through some glass probably. A window. Where? He looked around. Some storage room. Tony shook his head in bewilderment. What room was this? He ran his hands across his hair out of nervous habit. And realized that he was still bleeding. Shit. He looked around for a clean piece of cloth to press against the gash on his forehead. A few minutes later, he walked out onto the corridor. Which was plunged in darkness, he realized.

What happened to the power?

"Jarvis? What happened to the backup generator?" he asked, carefully stepping over the broken glass that littered the floor.  
There was no reply. "Jarvis?" he called again, only to be met with the same result. Tony swore softly. If Jarvis was out of commission it meant that the power outage was bigger than he thought. Or that something was very, _very_ wrong.  
He began walking down the corridor.

* * *

"How are you just going to walk into Stark's house? This is _Tony _Stark we're talking about. His house has top notch security. You can't just walk in." sneered the blonde man. The older man said nothing for a few minutes. "This is Howard Stark's son, yes?" he asked eventually.  
Blonde man looked at him curiously. "Yes. He is.. Why? What's it to you?"  
The older man smiled evilly. "Because that means our job has just been made simpler. We'll just give him enough rope to hang himself with." The blonde man began watching him pack. "What are you _doing_?" he asked loudly.

The old man looked at him. "Pack all the things you need to hack into a mainframe. I'm betting Stark's boy has some personal servers in that great big house of his."  
The blonde man looked at him in amazement. "How do you know Tony Stark's father?"  
The old man turned to look at him, his face expressionless. "I worked with his father on the Manhattan Project. And a few other things... Things that may just help us out with our Iron Man dilemma..." He turned towards the blonde man suddenly. "Maz, I have only two questions. And I need you to be sure before you answer them. One, are you sure you can break into Stark's personal server using the remote access link we have?"  
The blonde man called Maz looked at him scornfully. "_Hell_ yeah. Just get me within fifteen feet of his house. What's the second thing?"

"The second thing is, can you break into SHEILD headquarters?"

* * *

His head hurt.  
Badly.

The dull intermittent pain had changed into persistent, pulsing throb that echoed insistently through his skull. He gritted his teeth and pushed the bloodstained cloth closer to the wound. Cursing under his breath, he stumbled forward; having enough presence of mind to stay in the shadows. _Something was definitely not right. _  
He looked at the door the corridor joined. A yellow blade of light cut through onto the floor. The power was back on, he realized.  
He could hear noises through the open door. Raised voices. Familiar voices. But who?  
He couldn't make out what they were saying; and began inching forward when he was overcome by a wave of dizziness.  
The world spun around him, and he had to grab on to the door handle for support. The effects of the aftershock were emerging in full force.

_Get it together, Stark!_

He shook his head in an attempt to regain clarity but only succeeded in making his head spin; and his vision skew out of focus. He gave up and decided to continue with his previous plan of inching forward. He could make out figures in the harsh yellow light. From where he was standing he could make out the silhouettes of a man. And a woman.  
_The woman... Something about the woman..._  
He blinked as he angled his head to get a better view. The bright light shone almost in his eye and sound was started to get muted.

_The woman..._

The woman was shouting. His vision was hazy; as was his mind. But he could have sworn he _knew_ that woman. Her hair. Her eyes... He squinted in the light, narrowing his field of vision. Her eyes were so _blue. _She was shouting. He strained to hear what she was saying. Little by little snatches of conversation began to filter through, like he was listening to a radio with heavy static.

_" ..not talking until I see him! What have you done to him? Have you hurt.."  
"..assword please. I'm not ..playing games here?"  
_  
He frowned. It sounded important for some reason. He looked at the man standing next to _her._ He was holding her _hand_. An irrational tendril of anger curled through his consciousness. _You can't hold her hand._ Then the voices started getting louder.

Her voice. _"I want to see Tony Stark NOW. I'm not telling you anything until I know he's safe!"_  
The man's voice. _"Let me...Please.. Honey..." - _Tony flinched unconsciously at the nickname -_"Why should we comply with you? What's to prevent you killing us after we're done?"_

Silence.  
And then a third voice. _"Don't push me, Colonel Rhodes. From what I gather, Tony has meant.. nothing to you for a while now. I could spare her life and yours... choice.. yo.. "  
_The man called Rhodes looked like he was struggling with something.  
He kept shifting between looking at something Tony couldn't see and the woman with the blue eyes.

Rhodes' shoulder slumped in defeat as he moved towards whatever it was that Tony was unable to see.

It was getting harder to stay awake. But he knew those names.. .._Rhodes.. Rhodey?  
_And then the other name. _Tony Stark_.. But that was.. That was _him.  
_As he wafted in and out of sentient consciousness, sounds began to take on an individual quality.

Sounds of the keys of a keyboard being hit.  
A woman's voice shouting. Raised voices. Movement.  
They were holding her prisoner. _Hurting_ her. Anger began to clear the fog in his mind. _Don't. Don't do that_.  
The man called Rhodes coming back. Holding her hand again.  
Trying to restrain her as she tried to lunge at the man Tony couldn't see. She was furious. And she was crying.

In the recesses of Tony's murky, confused mind, something snapped.  
He began pushing himself up off the floor, fuelled purely by adrenaline and blind rage.  
All he knew in that moment was that whoever had hurt her, would pay. Dearly.

But even before he could pick himself up, the first of the gunshots sounded.  
And then he found he couldn't move. He was rooted to the spot he stood on; and he could only watch.  
He could only watch while everything slowed down to nothingness.  
Almost like he was watching a slow macabre montage of images.  
Images that played to the sound of silence and the stench of gunmetal.

He can see her body twirl a little, like she is caught in the middle of a dip while dancing.  
Her face registers no surprise, only a grim acceptance as she gracefully floats towards the floor.  
As he watches her fall, dim distant memories begin to cut through the cobwebs of his mind.

_Her name is Pepper,_ he remembers. _She is my wife_.

He sees the tendril of hair kiss the floor.  
And then the entire sunburst of red curls follows; surrounding her face as she falls.  
He cannot move, and he sees her turn towards him.

There is a trickle of blood near the corner of her mouth, where it entwines with the red fire that is her hair.  
Her blue eyes are shining brightly as she sees him and she smiles.  
He cannot move as he sees her mouth three words. Three words he knows so well.  
He opens his mouth to repeat them back to her, but it is too late.

Because he sees her eyes have closed, and the woman called Pepper who was his wife is dead.

**A/N**: Is all like what it seems?


	5. On The Edge Of The Spiral

**A/N:** Thanks to all those who reviewed! You guys make me happy :D

_La Phoenix_ - It's the thought that counts :D  
_StarkReactor_ - Here ya are!  
_chocolatemooses_ - Haha you really made a nice little upturn in my block filled 3 weeks :D  
_tamasit1_ - OooO, you may be close. Not that close, but how close? ;)

* * *

**_  
Chapter 05: On The Edge Of The Spiral_**

He stood there for what seemed like an eternity.

There was nothing except him and the sound of his heartbeat and the woman who lay on the ground. His breath came in choking gasps and he wanted to do nothing except _hurt_ someone. _Break_ something. He was consumed only with the primal urge to _destroy._ But it felt like his body had forgotten how. It felt like he had forgotten how to do everything. The only thing he was certain of was that she was dead.

_She was dead.  
His Pepper was dead._

He was jolted back to his senses by the sounds of more gunshots. They brought him back with a violent intensity; and the desire to _hurt_ was intensified. He pushed himself up off the floor and screamed. It was a harsh guttural sound that mingled with the short bursts of gunfire. He didn't care if he was discovered by whoever lurked behind the door. Nothing mattered anymore except revenge. Even as he saw Rhodes' body fall, he lunged forward; his face locked in an feral snarl and his intention only to maim and kill. But he never made it.

A strong arm curled around his waist. Another around his mouth. He struggled against this new threat but his legs felt like rubber and his will was as broken as the rest of him. He finally gave up as his body wracked with muffled sobs. "..please.. just let me _go_.. I don't want to fight you. Just..." he mumbled against the hand against his lips. The rest of the words died in his throat, unable to bubble up; drowned by the final waves of wretched misery. The hand over his lips slipped down to his arms and the newcomer began to pull Tony up. His movements were urgent. Precise. Careful?

"You need to get _out_ of here, Tony! If they find you here, they'll _kill _you this time!" breathed a voice near his ear. Tony would have stopped to wonder who the person was. How he knew his name. But all that didn't matter anymore. He managed to turn his head in the direction of the voice; and saw himself looking into a pair of worried blue eyes. He began to laugh hysterically.

".._blue_ eyes_. ..._no more _blue_ _eyes_.." was all he managedto choke outbefore he let go and fell into the blackness.

* * *

The rain spat repeatedly against the windshield of the van. Maz cursed under his breath as he squinted ahead, trying to make out the road they were on. Visibility was miserable at best, with him only able to see five feet ahead. "How much further, Mr. L? Because if this storm gets _any_ worse, we're going to drive off the road." The older man smiled quietly in the passenger's seat; not failing to notice the renewed usage of the slightly more respectful _Mr. L_ instead of 'old man'. He looked at the laptop and gestured with his hand. "Take the next curve to your right and drive into those trees. Do_ not_ drive any further than that." Maz looked at him, a quizzical expression on his face. But he took the curve and parked the car dutifully in the thicket nearby. Far be it from him to question Mr. L when it came to SHIELD. As the car came to a stop he looked around. There were no buildings in sight. There was an open expanse near the trees where they were parked. And the only manmade structure he could see there was something that looked like a lightning rod.

He turned to the old man. "I don't see anything that looks like an HQ, Mr. L."  
The old man looked at him and smiled. "No, you don't. Because this isn't SHIELD _headquarters_. This is something entirely different."  
Maz looked at him quizzically. "So what is it then?"  
The old man's lips twisted into a strange smile as he looked at the lightning rod.

"This? This is SHIELD's dirty little secret."

* * *

Tony's eyelids fluttered as he swam in and out of sentience. It was like waking in and out of a dream. _Dream._  
His eyes shot open as he staggered up against a wall. _No dreams! No dreams!  
_His frenzied movements were cut off by a violent shushing from the man standing next to him.  
"Will you _please_ shut the _hell _up so I can find a way out of this mess?" hissed the newcomer before he turned to the door again.

Tony leaned against the wall; his body trembling as he gulped in the air like a drowning man. As he tried to regain some sanity. Control. Anything close to normality_._

He felt tired. Exhausted. As if he'd been running for days and had never really been allowed to stop. The weariness had seeped into every pore of him; and he burned with pain and anger. But he needed to stay sane. _For Pepper._ He would stay sane for _her_. So that he could find out whoever was responsible for all of this. And then he would coldly, viciously hunt them down.

He rubbed his eyes in an effort to regain clarity.  
They were crammed into what appeared to be a supply room of some sort.  
What was this place? He'd never recalled seeing it before.

_Why am I lost in my own house?_

He needed answers and he needed them now. His eyes flicked towards the man standing near the door. Tony noticed that he looked pale and drawn; as if he'd been through hell and back.He was a tall, wiry man with brown hair. _And blue eyes_, remembered Tony bitterly. He forced himself to stand up. Clear his head. There were important things at hand. Things that involved people with guns and passwords. Passwords. Tony's eyes widened. Shit! The password to his personal server? Rhodey wouldn't have.. Would he? But even as the question formed in his mind, Tony already knew the answer.

_Shit._He slipped towards the man near the door. "Hey. We have a problem. My serv-" he began whispering when he was cut off. The man waved him away impatiently. "Just.. Not now, Tony. We need to get out. This outage was a fucking _miracle_. It gave Rhodes the _in_ he needed. Now we just have to find him and get ou-" Tony looked at him as his mouth twisted in a bitter smile.

The poor bastard didn't know.

"Rhodey is dead. So is Pepper." he said bitterly, his eyes dark with pain. The newcomer froze. "What did you _just say_?"  
Tony didn't meet his eyes. "You heard me the first time." he said harshly. The man slid down to the floor in shock. "Jim... and Ginny... _Dead?_" He looked at Tony through disbelieving eyes. "It can't be _possible_... " Tony looked at him without sympathy as he buried his face in his hands murmuring to himself. "_Ginny.. Jim. _Oh God." Tony looked at him puzzled. "When you say _Ginny_ do you mean.. Do you mean..Pepper_?"_

His fists clenched involuntarily as he said the name; but he forced himself to remain calm. The only way to make them pay for her death would be to destroy them. And to destroy them, he would have to stay one step ahead. Which meant he had to be able to _think._ He looked at the newcomer intently. The other man had arrived at the same decision as Tony had; from the look on his face. He turned to face Tony through bloodshot eyes. "Of_ course_ I mean her! What is wrong with you? After she married Jim _nobody_ called her Pepper. You _know_ that."

**A/N:** Apologies for SUPER late update. Writer's block and all. Sorry. Let me know your opinions on the old Mr. L and blondie Maz. Opinions on OCs are always appreciated. The next chapter is very much in the works.


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